2-2 Prof. Balfour Stewart and Mr. VV. L. Carpenter. [May 1, 



the production of dry north-west winds on the plains of Western 

 India. 



6th. That this dependence of dry winds on the Himalayan snow- 

 fall affords a criterion for forecasting the probabilities of drought in 

 North-Western and Western India. 



In setting forth the above conclusions, it is, however, necessary not 

 to ignore the fact that there other conditions besides those here 

 considered which exercise a very great influence on the prevalence of 

 dry winds and drought. During the last famine period in India (the 

 years 1876 and 1877 ; in the former year in Southern India, in the 

 latter in the North- Western Provinces and Rajputana), the pressure 

 of the atmosphere was persistently and abnormally high, and this was 

 due, as I showed in the reports on the meteorology of those years, to 

 the condition, probably the high density, of the higher atmospheric 

 strata. Moreover this excessive pressure was shown to affect so 

 extensive a region, that it would be unreasonable to attribute it to 

 the condition of any tract so limited as a portion of the Himalayan 

 chain ; and if dependent on the thermal conditions of the surface, 

 which may indeed have been the case, this land must rather have 

 been the major portion of the Asiatic continent than merely a rela- 

 tively small portion of its mountain axis. This-,qnestion must remain 

 for future inquiry. It is referred to here to guard against too wide 

 an application being assigned to the action of the Himalayan 

 snows. 



III. " Report to the Solar Physics Committee on a Comparison 

 between apparent Inequalities of Short Period in Sun- 

 Spot Areas and in Diurnal Temperature-Ranges at Toronto 

 and at Kew." By BALFOUR STEWART, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S., 

 and WILLIAM LANT CARPENTER, B.A., B.Sc. Communi- 

 cated to the Royal Society at the request of the Solar 

 Physics Committee. Received April 21, 1884. 



(Abstract.) 



It has been known for some time that there is a close connexion 

 between the inequalities in the state of the sun's surface as denoted 

 by sun-spot areas and those in terrestrial magnetism as denoted by 

 the diurnal ranges of oscillation of the declination magnet ; and 

 moreover the observations of various meteorologists have induced us 

 to suspect that there may likewise be a connexion between solar 

 Inequalities and those in terrestrial meteorology. 



This latter connexion, however (assuming it to exist), is not so well 



